Immediate Family

About Uskwa'li-gu'ta (Hanging Maw), Uku

Hanging Maw, or Uskwa'li-gu'ta in Cherokee, was the leading chief of the Overhill Cherokee from 1788 to 1794. He became chief following the death of Old Tassel, during the troubled period following the destruction of the traditional capital at Chota. His wife, Betsy, was the sister of Attakullakulla. Although he claimed the title by right of being the chief headman of the Overhill Towns, the rest of the nation had chosen Little Turkey as their First Beloved Man when they moved the seat of the council to Ustanali on the Conasauga River following the murder of Old Tassel. He was a descendant of Moytoy III.

He did take part in the Chickamauga wars, and in February 1786 along a wilderness creek in Middle Tennessee approximately twenty miles southeast of Lafayette, he led a party of sixty men in a skirmish with John and Ephraim Peyton, Squire Grant, and two other white men. Outnumbered, the white men successfully fled the area, but lost their horses, game, and surveying instruments to the band of Cherokees. The stream at the site of the skirmish became known as "Defeated Creek."

In 1793, a diplomatic party from the Lower Cherokee (as the division of Cherokee still at war with the U.S.A. were by then called) was attacked on its way to Knoxville, Tennessee, at the time capital of the Southwest Territory by colonial militia, who pursued them all the way to Chota on the Little Tennessee River, by then a former shadow of itself and no longer the seat of the Nation, that now being Ustanali, near the modern Calhoun, Georgia. When the militia couldn't find the fleeing diplomatic party, they attacked the people of the town, wounding Hanging Maw and killing Betsy.

The response of the Cherokee was an invasion of the Holston River settlements with the largest force of Indians ever seen, over one thousand warriors from both the Cherokee and the Upper Muskogee, under the chief of the Lower Cherokee, John Watts. Though its results were less than successful since bitter division among the Cherokee over the murders of a family at a small fortified settlement known as Cavett's Station after they'd been given safe passage by Watts, it is still notable for the size of the force that took to the field.

Hanging Maw was the leading chief of the Cherokee from 1780 to 1792. He became chief following the death of Oconostota, during the troubled period following the destruction of the tradition capital at Chota (also Echota, Chote, Chota-Tanasi, Chota-Tenase).

His wife, Betsy, was the sister of Attacullaculla and a granddaughter of Moytoy I. She was killed in a raid by whites.

In February 1786 along a wilderness creek in Middle Tennessee approximately twenty miles southeast of Lafayette, Hanging Maw led a party of sixty men in a skirmish with John and Ephraim Peyton, Squire Grant, and two other white men. Outnumbered, the white men successfully fled the area, but lost their horses, game, and surveying instruments to the band of Cherokees. The stream at the site of the skirmish became known as "Defeated Creek."